Margarita Vargas López
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October 30, 1969
Margarita Vargas López | |
|---|---|
 Margarita Vargas López | |
| Member of the Constitutional Convention of Chile | |
| In office July 4, 2021 – July 4, 2022 | |
| Preceded by | office established |
| Succeeded by | office abolished |
| Constituency | Kawésqar at-large |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Margarita Virginia Vargas López October 30, 1969 |
| Occupation | Politician |
Margarita Virginia Vargas López[1] (born 30 October 1969)[2] is a Chilean politician of Kawésqar origin. In 2021, she was elected to serve as the so-called Kawésqar nation's representative in the Constitutional Convention. Outside of politics, Vargas is a social activist and academic who has written for El Mostrador.[3]
Vargas was born in the isolated community of Villa Puerto Edén in the Última Esperanza Province.[3] Villa Puerto Edén, which is known as Jetarkte to the Kawésqar people,[4] is the homeland of the Kawésqar people.[5] As a child, Vargas and her family lived in a nomadic lifestyle, sailing across Wellington Island and surrounding areas. From a young age, Vargas identified strongly with her indigenous heritage, taking pride in her Kawésqar background "even though they made fun of us when we were children".[6]
At the age of 10, Vargas moved to the southern city of Punta Arenas in pursuit of an education.[7] Vargas attests that the Chilean military dictatorship harmed the Kawésqar people by forcing members of the nation to disperse from their ancestral territories. Vargas stated that the forced assimilation of Indigenous Chileans resulted in a situation in which "[w]e inserted ourselves into a western world that did not understand us."[8]
Vargas's late grandmother, Margarita Molinari Edén, was a Kawésqar activist who sought the legal preservation of Kawésqar culture. Following Molinari's death in November 1999, Vargas expressed her fear that the traditional Kawésqar culture would die with her:[9]
"The Kawésqar people are leaving with her, because she was the only person who maintained the customs and traditions of her people"